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The Personality Continuum is an integrative framework for the interdisciplinary study of consumer behavior. It is divided into four qualitatively different levels of personality development that are hierarchically arranged in descending order from highest to lowest level: Normal, Neurotic, Primitive and Psychotic.

The classification of a person into one of the four ranges of the Personality Continuum connects the individual to a general pattern of human behavior, a pattern of shopping behavior, and a pattern of the individual pursuit of self interest that vary qualitatively with each level of personality development.

The Personality Continuum and Consumer Behaviorbook was published in 2002. It serves as a comprehensive manual for the Personality Continuum.

The essence of The Personality Continuum and Consumer Behavior has been synthesized into an essay,"Inside Economic Man", which was published in Handbook of Contemporary Behavioral Economics: Foundations and Developments, Morris Altman, Editor, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2006 pp.3-23.

The Pattern of Shopping Behavior has been added since the publication of The Personality Continuum and Consumer Behavior (2002): Normal Consumer, Neurotic Shopper, Compulsive Buyer, and Psychotic Spender.Links are provided to recent publicity on the patterns of shopping behavior.

Click HERE to see the animated intro from the original website. It was created by Rob Boles in 2004.

Paul J. Albanese, an economist by training (Harvard Ph. D. 1982), has spent more than 25 years researching the relationship between personality and consumer behavior.